The invention relates to a device for collecting blood from a human body in a spill-proof manner so as to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
In the present era of blood-borne infectious diseases such as Hepatitis and AIDS, the health care industry has become rightfully concerned with unwanted spillage of a patient's blood. This concern has lead to the institution of universal precautions to guard workers against accidental contamination by a patient's blood. These diseases can be spread by a very small inoculum of blood, such as the amount in the hollow portion of a hypodermic needle. The currently available systems for collecting blood specimens for laboratory analysis are subject to some blood spillage. The health care workers are exposed to this blood during the time the specimen is being drawn, during the clean-up, and probably for some time afterwards if the clean-up is not thorough. The problems with the typical needle and syringe method of blood collection are obvious, particularly, if more than one syringe of blood is needed. The most popular method, the Vacutainer.TM., tends to allow blood to drip from the end of the collection needle while the tubes are being changed. A covered needle has been proposed, but it has not been particularly effective. Both the needle holder and the specimen tubes usually become contaminated with the patient's blood. In addition, the tubes are made of glass and easily break during centrifugation and shipping.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,933,439 issued to McDonald discloses a blood collection device for taking a sample of blood from a patient and dispensing a predetermined volumetric sample for analysis. A blood collection needle is in fluid communication with the interior of an expandable container which assists in drawing the blood. The device does not address the problem of blood spillage. There is no practical way to shut off the flow of blood from the needle when it is in a vein except by plugging the end of the needle with a collection chamber. Changing the collection chamber on the device could cause an unacceptable amount of blood spillage. It would not be practical to make the blood collection chamber large enough to draw all of the required blood at one time. It is not uncommon to draw 50 to 75 ml or more of blood for a series of tests. Blood flow is frequently too slow to allow one to collect both the clotted and anticoagulated specimens without changing the collection chamber.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a blood collection device which prevents blood spillage during use.
Another object of the invention is to provide a blood collection device wherein multiple specimens of blood may be taken in multiple containers using a single venipuncture needle without blood spillage.